Car Hits Pole, Causes Massive Cable and Internet Outage in Miami Beach UPDATED

Update: Miami Beach mayor Philip Levine announced Atlantic Broadband will issue service credit. See bottom for more.

New Year's is a big day for cable and internet -- you know, football games, holiday Facebook photos, Google searches on hangover cures.

But thousands of Atlantic Broadband customers in Miami Beach were left unplugged for much of the day after a car smashed into a pole near 71st Street and damaged lines. The accident occurred around 1:15 a.m., the Miami Herald reported, but the company later tweeted it couldn't begin to restore service until Florida Power & Light did its own restoration, which happened around 10 a.m.

Yet customers were still left without service for much of the day, leaving football fans in agony and tourists confused when they were told they couldn't pay for overpriced South Beach meals with credit cards because of the failure.

By around 7:15 p.m. -- well into Oregon's trouncing of Florida State in the first-ever college football playoff game -- Atlantic Broadband reported it had restored nearly all of its service:

@CBS4Adam Hi Adam, we are confirming, but it looks like our last 2 areas impacted are coming back online. We are 97% restored otherwise.

— Atlantic Broadband (@AtlanticBBInc) January 2, 2015

But other Twitter users, of course, had their own take on the disruption:

Here in Miami Beach we have NO internet, cable, phone thanks to some drunk crashing into a light pole on NYE. @AtlanticBBInc has a BIG prob

— Erin Sharoni (@ErinSharoni) January 1, 2015

#atlanticbroadband. Still no cable it may be wise to call the honchos off for holidays. City interrupted for car accident? Beam me up !

— BeachQueen (@bdeckqueen) January 1, 2015

Massive cable outage to @AtlanticBBInc Miami and Miami Beach customers since last night. Those of us with cable Internet? No soup for us!

— David Neal (@DavidJNeal) January 1, 2015

#pitbull broke the Internet on Miami Beach! Power surge at his concert last night took down Atlantic Broadband. Still not working!!

— Don Tapscott (@dtapscott) January 1, 2015

This afternoon, Miami Beach mayor Philip Levine said in a press release declaring that Atlantic Broadband had agreed to "issue a service credit" to residents who were affected. Here's the whole release:

Dear Friends and Neighbors:

Yesterday, Atlantic Broadband service was interrupted due to an automobile colliding with a utility pole. As a result of the lack of redundancies as well as the need for FPL to first make major repairs to the pole, many Miami Beach residents were without power, internet connection, and/or cable.

Following my conversation with the Atlantic Broadband CEO, Atlantic Broadband has agreed to issue a service credit to residents who were affected by the service interruption.

I will be bringing this matter to the City Commission so we may discuss alternative methods to reduce the city¹s vulnerability in the future.

Sincerely,

Philip Levine

Mayor

City of Miami Beach

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